It’s been a while since I’ve written about food on this blog. Continue reading
Month: September 2016
Super Important Announcement: First Solo Live!
So a few days ago, I teased a big announcement and now I can officially tell you what that is (in English)!
A solo show! That’s right! Iruka Punch, my owarai combi, is going to finally do a solo show, which is a big get for a first year combi like ours!
Iruka Punch First Solo Live
What’s Iruka Punch!!! (forgive the Japanglish punctuation)
October 8th, 2016
Doors open 7:45 PM
Tickets: Advanced 1200 yen/ Door 1500 yen
The theater is located in Omiya, a city that is pretty much a suburb of Tokyo (and one thirty minute train ride away from major Tokyo hubs like Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro), and the show starts at 8PM on a Saturday, which means that my solo show is both inconveniently located and inconveniently timed. In other words, hundreds of tickets are still available.
This is a big, big chance. If we sell enough tickets, god forbid we sell the theater out, we can help prove our viability as comedic talent to our agency. If absolutely no one shows up? Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
Which is all why I’m asking, nigh, begging any of you reading this in the greater Tokyo area to come to this show. If money is an issue, I can possibly get you some tickets at a reduced rate. Please please. Pretty please.
The Dog Days of Summer?/Early Fall?
It is hot. It’s rather obvious but it’s still hot out.
Here in Japan, most stores switch into autumn gear almost as soon as the clock hits 12 AM on September First despite the fact the weather often fails to make the same sudden transition to cool nights and fair days. Really, the only difference here between the “late summer” (August) and the “early autumn” (September) is all the typhoons that conveniently decided to strike the Japanese mainland this month rather than the last. What the hell’s up with that? (That’s a rhetorical question, you humorless meteorologist. I don’t need an actual explanation regarding high and low pressure systems.) Continue reading
Stephen’s Schedule: September 2016 Edition!
I realize now that I’ve spent a lot of time talking about my entertainment career while doing an absolutely awful job of actually giving anyone a chance to see what I do up close and personal.
Japanese owarai live events can give you a great view of a side of Japanese culture yet to really attract any international attention and I encourage anyone living in Japan to check one out at least one show during your time in Japan, even if you have little to no Japanese ability. You don’t even have to come to my show (though I certainly wouldn’t object to that). Just go to an owarai live.
With that said, here’s a list of my appearances for the month (at least the lives where we’re actually performing, rather than simply working warmup). If you want to go, hit me up in the comments or on twitter and I can get you tickets at a slightly reduced rate (day of tickets usually have a several hundred yen mark-up that I can get rid of for you).
IRUKA PUNCH OWARAI LIVE SCHEDULE: SEPTEMBER
- Thursday, September 15th: Trial Lesson
- Shibuya Theater D
- 3PM start time.
- Tickets: 1000 yen.
- Tuesday, September 20th: NEXT
- Ikebukuro GEKIBA
- 6:45PM start time
- Tickets: 1500 yen (WILL CALL ONLY. Contact me for tickets!)
- Wednesday, September 21st: Trial Audition
- Shibuya Yoshimoto Mugendai Hall
- 4:15PM start time
- Tickets: 1000 yen.
- Friday, September 30th: Satora Next
- Shibuya Yoshimoto Mugendai Hall
- 2:15PM start time
- Tickets: 500 yen.
For you Japanese speakers out there.
Tickets are still available for all the listed shows. All appearances will be as part of my combi, Iruka Punch.
We’ll be waiting.
Five Things You Should Know Before You Come to Japan
Stereotypical Tokyo Tower picture.
I know, I know. This is a horse that’s been particularly beaten to death over the years and there are like five-thousand other articles out there on the internet with the exact same title, most of them probably better than this one.
But, ever since What’s Manzai?!!! went live on Netflix, I’ve started to receive a steady stream of the typical “Hey, I want to come to Japan but totally don’t know where to start so I just randomly decided to contact a dude that I saw in a random TV show on the internet” message (most of these for some reason landing in my personal email account, Facebook Messenger, and, in one case, through text message on my phone). Rather than answering each query one by one (while I appreciate the fact that you’ve taken the time out of your life to contact me, I don’t have the time or resources to come up with a satisfactory response that doesn’t make me seem like the total asshole that I probably am), I thought I’d kill thirty birds with one stone, something that should totally be an Olympic sport by the way, and start answering some of these questions somewhere everyone could see them.
Which brings us to our main course for today:
Five Things You Should Know Before Coming to Japan
“Let’s Have Sex Under That Crying Statue!”- What I Learned From the Onsen Ordeal
So I’ve made it back from Hakone alive and in one piece (relatively speaking). This time around, our shift corresponded with perhaps the busiest travel season of the Japanese work year. What did that mean for the relatively underplanned and ill-prepared Mecha-Ike Onsen? Lots and lots of guests. Way more than we probably knew what to do with.
The first time around, back in July, daily guest numbers ranged around 1000 with the weekend occasionally bumping things up to 2500 people or so. In August, visitor numbers jumped to somewhere around 4000 people a day, many of whom all decided to visit the newly opened Mecha-Ike Onsen right around one o’clock, meaning two or so hours of hell a day for the staff, along with another ten or so hours of “Well, now what?” Continue reading
Stephen Tetsu 